The Jones family, Jenn, Cole, 14, and Jacob, are looking forward to moving out of their Section 8 rental apartment on Pitkin Street in Fort Collins. / Dawn Madura/The Coloradoan

Julie Brewen, executive director of the Fort Collins Housing Authority, is pictured at the Village on West Elizabeth Street on Friday. The affordable housing complex features one- and two-bedroom apartments. / Rich Abrahamson/The Coloradoan

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Jacob and Jenn Jones can’t wait until June, when they can move out of the apartment she calls “the slum” they’ve lived in for five years.

The Joneses considered moving earlier but were unable to find a place they could afford in the city. “When we tried to move last year, rent was about $200 to $300 higher than what we were paying and it was too much of a gap for us to afford,” Jenn Jones said.

Though the couple’s monthly rent is well below the Fort Collins average of $1,021, they still struggle to afford their two-bedroom, 900-square-foot apartment. The Joneses pay $434 per month and the Fort Collins Housing Authority subsidizes the remaining $241 while the couple work to get on their feet.

The monthly rent assistance is the difference between having a roof over their heads and potential homelessness.

“I know for sure I wouldn’t have my kid,” said Jenn, who stopped working when her son, Cole, suffered a stroke during delivery and needed constant care. Few thought he would ever walk, talk or eat on his own. With the help of machines, therapy and lots of a mother’s love, Cole is now a freshman at Fort Collins High School.

Losing the numbers game

Many Fort Collins families like the Joneses struggle with housing as the city’s multifamily vacancy rate sits at near-record lows and rents continue to rise. Even as developers scurry to build more apartments in a red-hot market, the dearth of affordable units has reached a near-crisis level, said Bill Reinke, director of CARE Housing.

Social safety nets provided by agencies like CARE, Fort Collins Housing Authority and Neighbor to Neighbor are running out of money and room. With more than 4,000 units under construction or in the development pipeline, only 168 are considered “affordable” with rent restrictions that will keep costs relatively low for 30 years.

CARE Housing has a waiting list of 399 clients. Its total housing inventory of 324 units is full with little turnover each month. “A lot of people who come in and find out it will take awhile to get through the waiting list don’t even leave their name,” Reinke said.

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Fort Collins Housing Authority has a waiting list of 1,900 families and individuals hoping for housing help but closed that list several years ago, unable to provide help to more families. An average of only seven families drop off the program each month, making it tough to even come close to meeting demand.

Though the waiting list is long, “it is not indicative of the need,” said Julie Brewen, executive director of FCHA. Far more families need help than get it. And apartments, often considered the most affordable housing option, are out of reach for many living in our community.

Yet unlike a simple supply and demand cycle, most developers shy away from building affordable projects due to the lengthy bureaucratic process involved, said Eric Nichols, a commercial Realtor with Doberstein-Lemburg in Fort Collins. Developing a project through the Federal Housing Administration comes with more affordable financing rates but also “with a lot of strings attached,” he said.

The FHA requires a developer to own the property for a certain period of time and fixes rents at a percentage of the area median income, “putting a cap on the economic value of the asset,” he said. “It’s a tough thing, especially in this economy with an unemployment rate between 7 and 8 percent. The need is out there but the problem is boards cost so much, cement costs so much, land in Northern Colorado is very expensive, and processes here are lengthy and expensive. For some, it’s not worth it.”

Will more units fill the need?

Many apartments currently under construction in Fort Collins are geared toward Colorado State University students. Others cater to young professionals or empty-nesters who can pay top rents.

Still, affordable housing advocates watch and hope that new units will ease the local housing crunch simply by providing a greater supply.

Only two of more than two dozen projects under way — Legacy Senior Residences southwest of the Poudre River between Linden and Pine streets, and Caribou II off Timberline Road — are being built with an eye on low-income tax credits and will remain affordable for the next 30 years.

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Hendricks Communities of Denver is building 96 units at Caribou II while Legacy plans 72 units.

Housing programs within the city work with tenants making between 30 percent and 60 percent of the area median income, which this year is $75,800 for a family of four. That amounts to roughly between $23,000 and $45,500 a year, depending on the program.

“Those units are favored from an affordable housing perspective because we know what rents will be and for how long,” said Ken Waido, chief planner for the city. The city gives a density bonus, provides some development assistance and delays collection of some fees to encourage affordable housing development.

While the addition of higher-end apartments would not seem to help address a lack of affordable housing, Brewen said anything that eases the tight market will help. “Any additional units to the housing market create a situation where people may have more choice and rents may come down.”

Many landlords are reluctant to accept Section 8 housing vouchers like the one the Joneses get from Fort Collins Housing Authority because they can charge more than vouchers will cover, Brewen said.

But if additional supply loosens local rental demand, more landlords may be inclined to accept voucher payments, she said. “They know they’re getting the payment every single month from us. But with a 1 to 2 percent vacancy rate they can charge what the market will bear.”

Rounding up dollars

Fort Collins Housing Authority owns or operates 900 units of affordable housing and administers almost 1,100 housing choice vouchers for residents — all are full. It is applying for state grant money to build Northern Colorado’s first permanent supportive housing program for the homeless at Redtail Ponds. It would have 40 units for formerly homeless people and 20 units for people earning up to 50 percent of the area median income.

The agency should know by the beginning of May whether it will receive funding. If it does, construction could start by the end of the year and be completed within a year, Brewen said.

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Jen and Jacob Jones expect they’ll move once they graduate from a family self-sufficiency program sponsored by the housing authority in June.

They’ve both gotten their high school equivalency diplomas, Jacob received his commercial driver’s license that has provided him a career, they’ve learned how to budget and save, and they expect to get off public assistance by July. After losing his job in February, Jacob expects to start a new truck driving job this week, a job that provides benefits.

“Getting a second chance has been the best blessing in life,” Jen Jones said. Without housing assistance, “we would not have been able to know what middle class felt like.”

Neighbor to Neighbor currently controls 126 units for low-income residents, all of which are full, said Kelly Evans, N2N’s new executive director. New apartments with higher rents “won’t have much impact at all on my industry in making sure the average working class family has a place to live in Larimer County.”

Like FCHA, Neighbor to Neighbor is looking for more opportunities to add to its 126 units currently available.

Unless more apartments open up at the lower end of the rent scale, families will “continue to do what they can, sitting on our waiting list, living paycheck to paycheck,” Evans said.

The next person on N2N’s waiting list for Section 8 housing help has been waiting since April, Evans said. “It’s tough when people come in and ask what their housing options are and there aren’t any good ones in the city.”